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By Beth BraggM cCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • Friday March 11, 2011 6:54 AM

Musher saves dog, calls Iditarod quits -

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Reunited with the dog she had feared died, musher Zoya DeNure said yesterday
that she was done with the Iditarod for a while but not done with sled-dog racing.

In fact, she's planning to enter the team - minus a male named Miller - in this weekend's
Chatanika 200, a race outside Fairbanks.

"You should see them. The dogs want to run. They've been training for the Iditarod. A 200-mile
race is not going to faze them," said DeNure, of Gakona, Alaska.

Miller, a male thought to be 8 years old, collapsed in harness Monday night for reasons still
unclear.

DeNure couldn't find a pulse and didn't get a response when she performed mouth-to-snout
resuscitation. She thought Miller

was dead, put the animal in her sled basket and backtracked to a checkpoint at Rainy Pass.

"My whole body was trembling," DeNure said. "I felt like it was my fault. I felt like the worst
person in the world. I hated myself because I put him on the trail."

As DeNure mushed back to Rainy Pass, her team seemed to sense her urgency.

"Our team speed was really good anyway, but it felt like they knew we had to get back to Rainy
Pass. They flew. They didn't even hesitate. It was like, 'Yep, Mom, we know.' They knew there was
an emergency. They hurried."

Near Rainy Pass, Miller opened his eyes and looked at her.

Once at the checkpoint, she carried a weak and shaking Miller inside.

"They put an IV in right away," DeNure said, and they covered the dog with blankets. For the
rest of the night, Miller was weak - even after 10 hours, he was unable to walk, DeNure said.

The next morning, DeNure scratched from the race.

"These dogs are like my life," she said. "My life is built around these animals. We love them
all. ... No way was I going to dump him off and continue with my dogs."